Seanad debates
Thursday, 5 July 2012
School Accommodation
5:00 am
Kathryn Reilly (Sinn Fein)
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I thank the Minister of State for coming into the House and taking this matter on the Adjournment on behalf of the Minister for Education and Skills. This is the second time I have raised the issue at St. Mary's national school in Virginia, County Cavan. When the Minister announced details of his infrastructure plan for 2012 last December, the school was omitted. When he announced his five year infrastructure plan in April, which outlines the major projects needed to cater for demographic growth, the school was again omitted. I would like to focus on the school's concerns about this issue and in particular, the use of the GIS system by the Department.
The major growth experienced in Virginia and surrounding areas has resulted in an influx of families and an increased demand for school accommodation. The most recent census figures indicate that there has been a 31.6% growth rate in the population of Virginia between 2006 and 2011. This is largely due to its location along the commuter belt and its close proximity to Dublin. In March the school enrolled its 80th student since September and enrolment now stands at 380 students, but the board of management and community do not believe that this is reflected in the school building programme for 2012.
School enrolment has doubled in the last few years and as a result, there has been massive expenditure on temporary accommodation. We are now at the stage where some of the prefabs need to be replaced with additional accommodation. The project was included in the 2011 school building programme and was at an early architectural planning stage, but it seems to have been stuck there for a long time. Now we want to move this project and get it to the next stage. Due to population growth, pressure is coming on primary school accommodation earlier than in the secondary school sector. As well as that, 77% of the fifth and sixth class pupils in St. Mary's national school were born outside of the parish, so there has been a large influx of primary school students to the area. Fifty two local authority houses have been built and they are on the verge of being allocated. From my dealings in Cavan and in the area, I know that many young families will be moving into those houses. In a county ravaged by emigration, it is good to see that there is population growth, but we need to make sure that the facilities and the services are up to date to deal with it.
The geographical information system, or GIS, used by the Department has its strengths, but we have concerns about it that we would like to be borne in mind when decisions are made on replacing the prefabs. We believe that the figures fail to take into account when one family moves from one location to another. The last time I raised this issue, child benefit was mentioned as an example. However, the child benefit payment does not require a change of address, so the GIS capacity and facility is only relevant if the bank details change. There is no bank at all Virginia at the moment. Most people do not change their bank due to online banking facilities. We need to be careful about this and due to the influx of people into Virginia, the community is being affected by the lack of movement onto the next stage of planning.
To recap, the school was originally built for six teachers but it now has 20 teachers and nine additional support staff. It is an intolerable situation for the community, the pupils and staff. There is a high level of frustration about the delay and I urge the Minister of State to bring this back to his colleague, the Minister for Education and Skills, to try to expedite the project and highlight once again the discrepancies in the use of the geographical information system. I hope this project will move forward because the school has been waiting eight years for new accommodation to be built. If it is omitted, as it already has been from the current five year programme, it will be at least 2020 before the new accommodation is built. With such large population growth this is not a feasible option for the town.
Shane McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Senator for raising this matter. I come from an area not too far from Virginia and I remember when it was a six-teacher school. I hope the community will not have to wait as long as the 25 years they did in Laragh down the road. The Senator is correct to raise the matter which is very important. Not alone has there been an influx of people to Virginia, being on the edge of the M3, but it is a very strong agricultural area with many medium to small farmers and I have no doubt they, as well as the people in the town, will have children. If the Senator has any further information I suggest she keeps pushing the matter. The same situation arises in the neighbouring area of Mullagh. The principal there has been in touch with me. The people there were a little disappointed. I suggest the Senator keeps raising the issue because those who lobby hardest get results.
I thank the Senator for raising the question relating to St. Mary's national school, Virginia, County Cavan. The Department of Education and Skills introduced a geographical information system, GIS, in 2008 and this technology is used to assist in planning school requirements for the future. The GIS contains information on all schools in the country, geo-coded to their location. The information is then linked to the relevant demographic information for these areas. Typically the demographic information will be from the Central Statistics Office census data, the general register of births, the Department of Social Protection, An Post's geo-directory and information supplied by local authorities through development plans. The system allows the Department to view, understand, question, interpret and visualise data in many ways that reveal relationships, patterns and trends. The external sources of demographic data are further enhanced by the Department's own enrolment data, and all sources are checked against each other to ensure they provide as accurate an overall picture as possible for future enrolment projections.
To meet the needs of our growing population of school-going children, the Department of Education and Skills must establish new schools as well as extending or replacing a number of existing schools, particularly in those areas where it has been identified that most future demographic growth will be concentrated. To ensure that every child has access to a school place, the delivery of projects to meet future demographic demands nationally will be the focus for capital investment in schools over the coming years. The five year construction programme outlines when 275 selected major projects will progress to construction over the next five years as part of a â¬2 billion capital investment programme. These projects will account for most of the capital funding available from now until 2016.
The Virginia feeder area has five primary schools. Enrolments at primary level have increased over the past decade from 590 pupils in 2001 to 2002 to 1,142 in 2011 to 2012. However, based on an analysis of the above information sources, the Department of Education and Skills has projected that future enrolments in the Virginia feeder area will remain relatively stable to 2018. In fact it is anticipated there will be a slight decrease in enrolments for the catchment area up to 2018. The current enrolment at St. Mary's national school, Virginia, is 380 pupils, increased from 350 in 2007. While enrolment levels have grown significantly at the school since 2000, they have increased by less than 10% over the past five years. This project is at an early stage of architectural planning and will continue to progress to complete the detailed design, secure planning permission and prepare tender documents.
All school building projects not included in the five year construction programme, including St. Mary's, will continue to be progressed, where possible, to final planning stages in anticipation of the possibility of further funds being available to the Department of Education and Skills in future years. However, it is not possible to progress this project to tender and construction at this time. I thank the Senator for raising this matter.
Kathryn Reilly (Sinn Fein)
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I thank the Minister of State and I ask him to bring back to his colleagues the point with regard to young families moving into the 50 new houses which have been allocated. I also have an issue with the projection of the slight decrease in enrolments. I firmly believe any decrease in enrolments will not be because of a lack of demand for places in the national school; it will be because parents will not want to send their children to a school with 11 prefabs which are cold and in dire need of replacement.
Shane McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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I will bring the message back. The Minister, Deputy Quinn, is doing an excellent job on the removal of prefabs throughout the country, which is a major step forward. I heard what the Senator stated with regard to local authority housing. Along with the agricultural community this will mean more children.